Tunnel Hull
Spring 2017
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A restoration with WEST SYSTEM Epoxy
By Ed Stubbs
I’m rebuilding and restoring this vintage tunnel hull race boat for Steve Roberge. It was his late father’s boat and he wanted to restore it. We took it to my house to do as a home project.
I love using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy because there is very little odor or product waste, especially when compared to working with polyester resins in less than ideal temperatures.
I used G/flex 650 epoxy to fiberglass documentation numbers onto a bilge. I had vinyl numbers made, then stuck them onto dry fiberglass cloth. I then squeegeed G/flex into the cloth, laid another piece of cloth over the numbers, and let the epoxy cure overnight. I trimmed away the excess, then sanded both the back and the mounting surface. I used G/flex 655 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive to bond the numbers in place: no fuss, no muss, no polyester smell. It was easy!
The next steps will be wet sanding and restoring the deck, which has a lot of cracks from an accident some time ago.
We got through repairing the tunnel hull repaired, sanding it and fairing it with WEST SYSTEM Epoxy thickened with high-density and low-density fillers, then gel coated in blue. We had no problems using the poly-based gel coat over epoxy, as we took no shortcuts. Everything was sanded and properly cleaned before spraying.
